Pulmonary Hypertension Treatment
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703.369.5959Tired, out of breath, feeling dizzy – the symptoms could mean you're not getting enough oxygen. Pulmonary hypertension could be the cause. This heart and lung condition keeps you from getting enough oxygen. And it can get worse over time.
Here, you can get help from experts. The Pulmonary Hypertension Association named our Pulmonary Hypertension Center as a Center of Comprehensive Care. We offer the full range of treatments for your chronic condition.
Pulmonary Hypertension Treatment at UVA Health
At UVA Health, we'll put together a personal plan of action for your treatment. Pulmonary hypertension doesn't have a cure. But we can help you feel better and slow down how fast the disease gets worse.
It might take some time to find the best treatment for you. You might also need to make some lifestyle changes.
If we can pin down what's causing your pulmonary hypertension, we'll treat that too.
As a Center of Comprehensive Care for Pulmonary Hypertension, we offer:
- An experienced team of heart and lung care experts
- Specialists, like rheumatologists, genetic counselors, infectious disease, and palliative care experts, who work closely with your care team
- State-of-the-art treatments, including lung transplants
- Ways to join clinical trials doing research
Treatments include:
- Medicine to help symptoms or treat what's causing it
- Surgery that lowers pressure in your heart
If medicine and lifestyle changes aren't enough, we can also offer a lung transplant.
Because pulmonary hypertension is a chronic disease (can't be cured), most people keep working with their doctors and nurses for their whole life.
Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension (CTEPH)
We're one of the only centers in the U.S. with the knowledge and tools needed to spot a rare form of pulmonary hypertension called chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). We're also one of the few hospitals to offer surgery to fix it (pulmonary thromboendarterectomy).
We've been named a certified Center of Comprehensive Care for Pulmonary Hypertension by the Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA).
Pulmonary Hypertension Treatment
Pulmonary hypertension is when high blood pressure in your lungs and heart makes it harder to get oxygen into your blood. That can cause some serious conditions.
Pulmonary hypertension is an umbrella term for a family of diseases that all have the same presentation, which is where the blood pressures in the lungs are elevated. As the heart pumps on the right side, it pumps that blood through the lungs where oxygen is picked up to the left side of the heart. The left side of the heart then pumps that blood to the rest of the body. And it�s that conduit, or that interplay, between the right and left side of the heart that takes place across the lungs, where disease can take place. Symptoms of pulmonary hypertension can often times be deceptive. In fact, there�s quite a bit of lag between when patients present their symptoms and when they�re diagnosed. And the reason for that is the symptoms are the same symptoms that you see in any type of heart or lung disease. Patients may present with a chest pain that is not exactly from a clear source. They can present with breathlessness, particularly when they walk, and even, particularly, when they walk up stairs, or up inclines. Some patients will present with a cough. Some patients will present with swelling in their feet. And often times patients will present just with having abnormal echocardiograms. The treatments for pulmonary hypertension are diverse, and the reason for that is that the causes for pulmonary hypertension are diverse. Some patients, when they come into our clinic, we make lifestyle recommendations, recommendations for the changes in their diet. In that case, sometimes, we have them meet with our nutritionist. Some patients, we make recommendations about changing their sleep habits. In that case, often times, we�ll make referrals to our sleep doctors to help in that evaluation. And sometimes patients require higher and more complicated therapies, and in that regards, our nurse practitioner, our nurse, our pharmacist, and often time, the combination of the cardiologist and pulmonologist in our clinic come together to devise an individualized plan for the individual needs of that patient and their disease.
Pulmonary hypertension happens when blood pressure in your lungs gets too high. That makes it harder for the right side of your heart to do it's job. The right side works with your lungs to put oxygen into your blood.
Pulmonary hypertension symptoms include:
- Trouble breathing
- Chest pain or tightness
- Feeling dizzy or faint
- Swollen belly
- Swollen ankle
- Fatigue
Pulmonary hypertension can be caused by other health conditions like:
- Sarcoidosis
- HIV/AIDS
- Connective tissue disorders
- Portal hypertension
- Congenital heart disease
- Drug or toxin-induced hypertension
- Interstitial lung disease
- Liver disease
- Portal hypertension
- Inherited diseases or other disease processes